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English infantry, which, says Temple, gave the most ghastly and deplorable wounds. It may be called securis falcata.

JOHNSON.

Line 322. If you hear a child cry, &c.] It is not impossible but that part of this scene was intended as a burlesque on The Statutes of the Streets, imprinted by Wolfe, in 1595.

Ben Jonson, however, appears to have ridiculed this scene in the Induction to his Bartholomew Fair.

"And then a substantial watch to have stole in upon 'em, and "taken them away with mistaking words, as the fashion is in the "stage-practice." STEEVENS.

Line 370. any villainy should be so rich:] The sense abWARBURTON

solutely requires us to read, villain.

Line 374. thou

ways of the world.

art unconfirmed:] i. e. Unpractised in the WARBURTON.

Line 392. reechy painting;] i. e. A painting tarnished by

smoke.

Line 393. sometime, like the shaven Hercules, &c.] I believe that Shakspeare, by the shaven Hercules meant only Hercules, when shaved "to make him look like a woman, while he remained in the service of Omphale, his Lydian mistress. Had the shaven Hercules been meant to represent Samson, (according to Warburton) he would probably have been equipped with a jaw-bone instead of a club. STEEVENS.

Line 394. smirch'd] i. e. Clouded, soiled.

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Line 446.rabato] A collarband; a ruff.

Thus, in the comedy of Law Tricks, &c. 1608:

"Broke broad jests upon her narrow heel,

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"Pok'd her rabatos, and survay'd her steel."

This passage will likewise serve for an additional explanation of the poking-sticks of steel, mentioned in The Winter's Tale.

STEEVENS.

Line 454. a thought browner;] A shade or degree browner. 466. 'Twill be heavier soon, by the weight of a man.] Vide

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Line 484.

Light o' love;] A tune so called, which has

been ready mentioned by our author.

JOHNSON.

Line 488. -no barns.] A quibble between barns, repositories of corn, and bairns, the old word for children. JOHNSON. Line 495. For the letter that begins them all, H.] This is a poor jest, somewhat obscured, and not worth the trouble of elucidation. STEEVENS.

Line 496.

-turn'd Turk,] i. e. Taken captive by love, and turned a renegado to his religion. WARBURTON.

This interpretation is somewhat far-fetched, yet, perhaps, it is

right.

Line 517.

JOHNSON.

-some moral- -] That is, some secret mean

ing, like the moral of a fable.

JOHNSON.

Line 528. he eats his meat without grudging:] I do not see how this is a proof of Benedick's change of mind. It would afford more proof of amorousness to say, he eats not his meat without grudging; but it is impossible to fix the meaning of proverbial expressions: perhaps, to eat meat without grudging, was the same as, to do as others do, and the meaning is, he is content to live by eating like other mortals, and will be content, notwithstanding his boasts, like other mortals, to have a wife. JOHNSON.

ACT III. SCENE V.

Line 551. I am as honest as any man living, that is an old man, and no honester than 1.] There is much humour, and extreme good sense under the covering of this blundering expression. It is a sly insinuation that length of years, and the being much hacknied in the ways of men, as Shakspeare expresses it, take off the gloss of virtue, and bring much defilement on the manners. For, as a great wit says, Youth is the season of virtue: corruptions grow with years, and I believe the oldest rogue in England is the greatest.

Line 573. derful to observe.

Line 575.

WARBURTON.

-it is a world to see!] i. e. It is curious or won

-an two men ride, &c.] This is not out of place, or without meaning. Dogberry, in his vanity of superior parts, apologizing for his neighbour, observes, that of two men on an horse, one must ride behind. The first place of rank or understand

VOL. X.

L

ing can belong but to one, and that happy one ought not to despise his inferior. JOHNSON. Line 603. -to a non com:] That is, to a non compos mentis.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Line 12. If either of you know any inward impediment, &c.] This is evidently borrowed from the form of marriage ceremony. -some be of laughing,] This is a quotation from

Line 21. the Accidence.

Line 44.

JOHNSON.

-luxurious bed:] That is, lascivious. Luxury is

the confessor's term for unlawful pleasures of the sex.

Line 57.

JOHNSON.

-word too large;] So he uses large jests in this play, for licentious, not restrained within due bounds. JOHNSON.

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Line 61. I will write against it:] To subscribe to any

thing is to allow it, so to write against is to disallow or deny.

JOHNSON.

Line 64. --chaste as is the bud--] Before the air has tasted its sweetness.

Line 86.

is nature.

Line 106.

JOHNSON.

--kindly power -] That is, natural power. Kind

JOHNSON.

liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places

of these plays, means, frank beyond honesty or decency. Free of

tongue.

JOHNSON. what a Hero had'st thou been.] I am afraid here

Line 114. is intended a poor conceit upon the word Hero.

JOHNSON.

Line 144. The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, the

story which her blushes discover to be true.

Line 152.

213.

JOHNSON.

-smirched- -] i. e. Soiled, sullied.
-bent of honour ;] Bent is used by our author

The ex

for the utmost degree of any passion, or mental quality. Benedick already says in this play, her affection has its full bent. pression is derived from archery; the bow has its bent, when it is

drawn as far as it can be.

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JOHNSON.

-ostentation;] Show, appearance. JOHNSON. -we rack the value;] i. e. We exaggerate the

value. The allusion is to rack-rents.

STEEVENS,

Line 277. --my inwardness

-] Inward means, to be in

timate with as in Measure for Measure:

"I was an inward of his."

Line 283. The smallest twine may lead me.] This is one of our author's observations upon life. Men overpowered with distress, eagerly listen to the first offers of relief, close with every scheme, and believe every promise. He that has no longer any confidence in himself, is glad to repose his trust in any other that will undertake to guide him. JOHNSON.

Line 290. Lady Beatrice, &c.] The poet, in my opinion, has shewn a great deal of address in this scene, Beatrice here engages her lover to revenge the injury done her cousin Hero: and without this very natural incident, considering the character of Beatrice, and that the story of her passion for Benedick was all a fable, she could never have been easily or naturally brought to confess she loved him, notwithstanding all the foregoing preparation. And yet, on this confession, in this very place, depended the whole success of the plot upon her and Benedick. For had she not owned her love here, they must have soon found out the trick, and then the design of bringing them together had been defeated; and she would never have owned a passion she had been only tricked into, had not her desire of revenging her cousin's wrong made her drop her capricious humour at once. WARBURTON. Line 328. I am gone, though I am here:] i. e. I am out of your mind already, though I remain in person before you.

STEEVENS.

Line 341. I would eat his heart in the market-place.] A savage sentiment for a woman; but the same expression is frequent in The Iliad of Homer.

Line 351. of nobleman.

-a goodly count-confect;] A sugar-candy sort

Line 377.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

we have the exhibition to examine.] Meaning,

we have the examination to take.

Line 390. Con. Bor. Yea, Sir, we hope.

Dogb. Write down-that they hope they serve God:

-and write God first; for God defend-but God should go before

such villains!] This short passage, which is truly humourous and in character, I have added from the old quarto. Besides, it supplies a defect: for, without it, the Town-Clerk asks a question of the prisoners, and goes on without staying for any answer to it. THEOBALD.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Line 16. If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;

Cry,-sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan ;] Dr. Johnson does not approve of either of the conjectures made by the different commentators. He says, I point thus:

If such an one will smile, and stroke his beard,

And, sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he shall groan;

That is, If he will smile, and cry sorrow be gone, and hem instead of groaning. The order in which and and cry are placed is harsh, and this harshness made the sense mistaken. Range the words in the common order, and my reading will be free from all difficulty. JOHNSON.

Line 19.

candle wasters;] Probably means, those who

have recourse to revelry and midnight orgies.

Line 33.

-than advertisement.] That is, than admonition,

than moral instruction.

JOHNSON.

Line 38. However they have writ the style of Gods,] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wise men. Sapiens ille cum Diis ex pare vivit. Senec. Ep. 39. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se minoris estimat.-Deus non vincit sapientem felicitate. Ep. 73.

WARBURTON.

Line 39. And make a pish at chance and sufferance.] Alludes
WARBURTON.

to their famous apathy.
Line 89. Despite his nice fence,] i. e. His skill in fencing.

92.

Can'st thou so daff me?] To daffe and doffe are synonimous terms, that mean, to put off: which is the very sense required here, and what Leonato would reply upon Claudio's saying, he would have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD.

Line 95. Ant. He shall kill two of us, &c.] This brother Anthony is the truest picture imaginable of human nature. He had assumed the character of a sage to comfort his brother, o'er

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